okay this is a current production Lodge piece and because the way they cast them nowadays a machine rather than hand and I guess also dealing with the type of sand they use that comes out with a really rough surface now some skillets work better than others I don't know maybe a good day at the foundry I don't know but the older ones I guess they had a finer casting to them and they just worked better and actually some were actually ground smoother the ground skills do take a while to get a good seizing to it here it's just the nature of the beast so once you do this it could take a year before the seasoning will actually start to be really really nice so it's you know labor love so on this 10 inch lodge I'm gonna be using when these Avanti Pro quick strip discs from metal this is a four inch one we've got it just on my normal drill this thing as far as a rocking does a great job now did it rather than using different sanding discs and different grips and things on nature of this one disc does a great job of both you know strip off the seasoning and smooth it out and this is the first step in the process after this we'll have to take it and put it in the oven and put it through a heat treat cycle the oven cleaning cycle basically because when you polish it like this it gets too slick actually so we're going to smooth it out and I'll get like a mirror very shiny finish and then I'm gonna put through the heat treat cycle which basically makes it like a micro matte finish which does a much better job for dealing with a seasoning and holding on to it so let's get started as you can see here it doesn't take long to get it smoothed out as you see here it's nice and smooth out it's not perfectly flat which I'm not worrying about and you see these little dimples and things that's the pitting that's in the surface underneath the seasoning when they pour it I'm not gonna get all those out I'm just smoothing out and that's what we're looking for those little dimples will not hurt anything at all they'll actually fill in overtime be completely smooth as you use it now I'm going to take this 40 grit on my orbital sander and come smooth out the whole surface this will also get rid of that hazy scratchy 3d look see nice and smooth all the scratches are mostly gone nice and shiny very pretty and sorry for sound like Darth Vader here I have a mask on before we put this in the oven on the cleaning cycle I want to get all the debris off of it so I'm going to use a SOS pad here and completely scour it and clean it off and then I'm going to be using some dishwashing detergent I use Dawn and clean it off with that rinse it and then dry it and put to the heat cycle here are removing all the water from the skillet from cleaning it in the sink once I'm done with this I will put it in the oven on the self-cleaning cycle this completely strips any and all seizing from the skillet it absolutely just burns it right off and what it will also do is this shininess will go away it'll still be very smooth but it will give this matte finish to it which really helps with the seasoning ok the oven cleaning cycle is completed it's been about three and a half hours and I stopped it it nobody goes for about four four and a half hours and as you can see here these skills they are completely clean there I mean there's nothing left and they were actually a little bit darker if you notice okay I do not show this in the video right here but I do take the skills back over to the sink and completely clean them again scrubbing with s.o.s cleaning with Dawn dishwashing detergent you know I dry them off with clean paper towels to be put into the oven for a few 10 minutes at 350 which is happening here to completely dry them off before I put oil on them for seasoning okay the skillets just came out of the oven they're in for 10 minutes at 350 and they're nice and warm so this Crisco shortening them putting on them is completely melting going on the poor isn't everything it's gonna flow into all the cracks and crevices everything it's the best time to do it use it literally get the front the back everything you want to be just goofed on there for this point okay now I'll let the skillets sit until they cooled off now I'm going to take clean paper towels and remove every single bit I can of the seasoning specially on the inside a very thin micro coat is all you need this is the first seasoning of three this is what it should look like when you're ready to put it into the oven we're going to bake them for one hour at 350 about 10 minutes into the hour take a look at the surface of the skillet that's smooth and make sure it's not spotting with too much oil if it is wipe it clean with the paper towel and let it go for the rest of the hour okay it's been an hour the first seasoning is done and looks pretty good it's even it's shiny no spotting hey while the pan is still hot time to add coat number two we're gonna repeat the same process apply it while the pans hot cover everything don't worry about getting too much because as we have done before we're gonna wipe it all off okay second coats been wiped down all excess removed time to go into the oven for another hour at 350 and don't forget that ten minutes into this you take a peek and make sure it's not spotting or anything this is actually the second coat being completed after an hour it's getting nice and thick and smooth now here we go with the third coat it's been applied to it and wiped down we've seen the process before now it's going back into the oven for the hour at 350 now this is a spotting I was talking about the small skill to had the hat in there did this it looks like Lefferts pots you just wipe it out like this and see it's gone this oil stool there now you put it back in let it continue for the hour okay the hours up third coat is set and it is time to crank the heat up to 500 for an hour hour and a half maybe two hours it depends if you have a convection of it or not or just the skill sometimes need longer the turn dark this is going to be the darkening stage okay it's been about an hour and a half or so let's cut the fan off because you have to have it on because it will smoke because you're burning the oil on the cap on the pan now you look dark look nice pull it out and take a look excuse my daughter in the background they look good nice and smooth even now they look more Copperas right here but that's because of the copper colored light on the stove I'll turn off in just a second and you'll take a you'll get a look see they look good smooth dark ready to go thanks for watching everybody I hope this may help you get smooth beautiful large skillets have a good day